Social Networking
I just had a great conversation with my good friend Dr. Fermin Whittaker this morning about the topic of Social Networking. We talked about ministry effectiveness and the need for authenticity in all of our motives. Are we really after the numbers or is there another bench-mark that we should place our aim? We talked about community and how that word has become elemental in our culture. Questions began streaming as we talked, I’m asking myself: What am I doing to take what I do to the next level of impacting lives? How can I do a better job of communicating?
Dr. Whittaker is an out of the box thinker, which allows him to step into the thinking processes of young people and look at what’s coming soon with excitement for change rather than dread. Speaking of change…Change is for obvious reasons a cliche right now, but I can understand why it’s being overused. It needs to be welcomed now more than ever. My Boss Tim, talks about change and how he used to think it was like cancer. You don’t ever want to have to deal with it, if you do then it sucks to be you (not quite his words). Change would always have a negative effect and was approached with extreme caution. Now he thinks of change as a necessary part of life. A positive aspect of life. Imagining life without change is craziness. It should be approached as a theology. A theology of change is asking God to work and mold everything into what he wants. It’s painful, but only because tradition and routine is so comfortable. With a theology of change, the need to look at life, to look at our work, to look at our individual ministries with a glimmer of excitement and optimism is crucial. So much is changing around us. Communication mediums are popping up continuously from every direction. Whether its e-mail, cell phones, AIM, Txt messaging, myspace, blogging, facebook, twitter, etc. Communication is evolving and my generation is instigating it. As I was leaving my friend’s office this morning he gave me a book about this topic called ”Here Comes Everybody – The power of organizing without organizations.” It illustrates the brilliance of reaching out and connecting the disconnected, making relationships into powerful tools for efficiency. Social Networking is connecting the minds of young people and even older generations, allowing them to do more and more inovating things together. It’s something to be welcomed. I’m going to devour this book and try to implement its lessons into my work. I hope to be 67 years old and in touch with the world like Dr. Whittaker is.
